Press Release June 24, 2016

The Buma Boy Edgar Prijs, the most prestigious Dutch award in the field of jazz and improvised music, has been awarded to double bass player and improvising musician Wilbert de Joode.
As part of the award, De Joode will curate an evening concert at the Bimhuis on December 7, 2016. During the occasion, he will be presented with the award, which consists of a cash prize of €12,500 and a sculpture by Jan Wolkers. VPRO will cover the evening on national public radio station NPO Soul & Jazz and on www.vrijegeluiden.nl(photo by Sara Anke Morris)

Bass player Wilbert de Joode is widely recognised as one of the major specialists in the discipline of collective improvisation and “instant composition”, the on-the-spot creation of unrehearsed music. As a self-taught bass player, he stands out for his determination, his sonic imagination and his extensive musical vocabulary. He has developed his own distinctive double bass sound, partly through the use of gut strings. De Joode is regarded as a powerful free spirit who is forever exploring, taking risks, and always ready to create from “nothing” without ever allowing his ego to prevail. These qualities make him a much sought after musician and composer.
De Joode plays double bass in a number of well-known Dutch improvised music groups, such as the Ab Baars Trio, the Eric Boeren Quartet, Bik Bent Braam, Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher and Ig Henneman’s ensembles. He also plays with acclaimed foreign musicians, including Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, William Parker, Ken Vandermark and Alexander von Schlippenbach. Besides performing, Wilbert de Joode is a founding member of the artistic committee of the DOEK Foundation, a collective of leading Dutch improvised jazz musicians and a national and international platform for improvised music. In addition to his collaborations with other musicians, De Joode has also worked with dancers and visual artists, including the American dancer Michael Schumacher.

Excerpts from the jury’s report:De Joode is self-taught – an increasingly rare phenomenon in the world of improvised music – and his independent study of music is driven by a fascination with timbre and acoustics. … He has an extensive vocabulary and a very good ear for the musical possibilities of a particular sound at a particular moment in a particular space.

The jury … commends Wilbert de Joode on his interplay with fellow musicians, a quality so essential to freely improvised music. He is, to a greater extent than many a Dutch improvised jazz musician, first and foremost a listener, and his responsiveness and musical agility are expressions of his wealth of ideas. De Joode acts simultaneously as both sponge and membrane … .

[A] shining example to young musicians, as well as a fulcrum between the pioneers of improvised music and an international community of young musicians … .

Wilbert de Joode is a creative force in a tradition that eschews tradition … . In this regard, it is particularly true that in De Joode’s hands musical creativity and the results thereof are a never-ending process, never a final conclusion.

History of the award
The Buma Boy Edgar Prijs is awarded each year to an artist who has long distinguished themself creatively by their remarkable contribution to vitalizing the Dutch jazz and improvised scene. The award ceremony and its affiliated evening concert is organised by the Boy Edgarprijs Foundation in collaboration with the Bimhuis.

The award was originally initiated in 1963 under the name the Wessel Ilcken Prijs, was renamed the Boy Edgar Prijs in 1980, and the VPRO/Boy Edgarprijs in 1992. It became the Buma Boy Edgar Prijs in 2014. Recent winners include Yuri Honing (2012), Oene van Geel (2013), Jeroen van Vliet (2014) and Tineke Postma (2015).